`Rainbow Warrier` Pair May Be Sent To France

December 16, 1985|United Press International

WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND — In a surprising reversal, Prime Minister David Lange said today two French secret agents jailed for the Rainbow Warrior bombing murder may be sent home if France promises to keep them in prison.

Lange linked the return of the agents to New Zealand`s demand for $16 million in compensation from France for the sinking of the Greenpeace ship, attacked in Auckland Harbor on July 10 to prevent it from following through with a planned protest at the scene of a French nuclear test. He said he would never negotiate ``a release to freedom`` for the killers.

The prime minister previously had declared that the two agents would serve their 10-year sentences for manslaughter in the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior in New Zealand prisons.

France admitted sending the agents - Dominique Prieur and Alain Mafart - to New Zealand to blow up the Rainbow Warrior to keep it from leading a Greenpeace protest flotilla against French nuclear testing in the South Pacific.

A Greenpeace photographer was killed in the blast.

French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas was quoted during the weekend as saying, ``negotiations are taking place at government level. France wants and will keep wanting its agents back.``